Comments on: An Extravagant Wastehttps://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/an-extravagant-waste/455/
Executive Director, New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death PenaltyFri, 23 Nov 2012 01:21:48 +0000hourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.2By: Chris Honeycutthttps://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/an-extravagant-waste/455/#comment-919
Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:50:23 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/?p=455#comment-919I hope you don’t mind that I answer as Chris and not JN. I’ve dropped the use of pseudonymns because I realized they’re extremely immature and lead to uncivil discourse.

Thank you for the review.

On the studies that you and others cite for both brutalization and deterrence I would like to ask about error bars – that is, standard errors and confidence intervals (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/StandardError.html). It’s all well and good to say that the method they use to calculate deterrence shows an overal 1.3% decline in the murder rate.

However, if that’s 1.3% +/- 10% or even 5%, then it’s meaningless. You can have a 1.3% effect or more in totally random numbers as well.

For my counterexample to the argument of deterrence – that the death penalty has a deterrent effect – as well as evidence that the death penalty encourages societal brutality, I would like to point out that Canada and European nations which do not have the death penalty have far lower violent crime rates, particularly homocide rates, than we do.

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I noticed in the link you provided, you seem to suggest that Matthew 15 is about the death penalty, and supports the death penalty.

I would strongly argue this; it appears to me that Jesus was citing an example of the hypocracy of the Pharisees, who claimed to follow the Law of God and failed to do so while simultaneously criticizing Jesus and His followers for failing to follow the Law regarding handwashing.

If you’d like to discuss this, I’d be interested in that.

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I think we agree that murderers walking free is disgusting. I would agree strongly that it is always unjust when a deserved sanction is not given.

I think we simply disagree about what is an appropriate maximum sanction – what the worst punishment society gives should be.

It’s my view that when you hurt or kill someone who is helpless, then the crime is on you, regardless of how much of a monster the helpless person is. “He who fights with monsters should see to it that he does not become one.”

No crimes are identical and all “similar” crimes, subject to the same statute, can and do have widely varying punishments, depending upon all aspects of the crime, scuh as culpability, quality of evidence, the criminal background of the defendant, plea bargains for testimony, to name but an important few.

That is always the case, even when mandatory minimums are present, even more so when there are no mandatory sentences.

It is always unjust when a deserved sanction is not given.

We all know of cases where the actually guilty have gone free, inclusive of when jurors have said of course the defendant was guilty, but the state didn’t have the evidence to prove it to the legal standard. So too are we aware of actual innocents who have been found guilty.

All of that, as we all know, ia a part of the criminal justice system, just as with other aspects of life.

Yet, as with all crimes and their sanctions, we stive to impose sanctions that are just, appropriate and proportional. Yet we know that the majority of all crimes are not solved or sanctioned.

Professional cryptologists have been working decades, often with advanced computerized systems, to no avail. But Mr. Starliper, a hobbiest, managed to break the code.

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Brutalization is an important issue, imho. It’s my opinion that a government that supports life can help that value system infuse into the culture.

The death penalty is part of that.

Personally, I support being consistantly tough on violent offenses – such as life in prison for murder, regardless of how society values the offender or the victim.

]]>By: Dahn Shaulishttps://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/an-extravagant-waste/455/#comment-893
Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:56:14 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/?p=455#comment-893Dudley Sharp is not a Death Penalty expert. He is a pro-Death Penalty zealot who declines to include the growing evidence that state-sponsored killing has a net brutalization effect–more innocents (and police) die because the Death Penalty is maintained.
]]>By: J. Nashhttps://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/an-extravagant-waste/455/#comment-847
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 03:19:07 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/?p=455#comment-847Hm.

You have a funny notion of “justice.”

For example, Texas is a state where some people are killed for murder – but others walk free, literally straight out on to the streets:

“The move follows a Dallas Morning News investigation last month that showed Dallas County led Texas – the nation’s death penalty capital – in granting probation as a punishment for murder from 2000 through 2006.

“Nine percent of all Dallas County murder sentences resulted in probation”

It is likely that Texas and Virginia have death penalty systems that are less expensive than their life sentence protocol.

All states could copy those systems, if they wished, honoring the just sentence given, while not wasting immense taxpayer funds.

]]>By: J. Nashhttps://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/an-extravagant-waste/455/#comment-825
Fri, 01 Jul 2011 01:37:35 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/?p=455#comment-825I understand that the families of the victim want some form of retribution. But this is ludicrous.

Picture it as balancing a household budget:

You’re desperately trying to scrimp and save to balance your budget and get out of debt.

So, you make allowances: frozen vegetables instead of fresh, generic coffee instead of the one you like and so on. You’re saving pennies with each of these decisions, but it adds up.

Then suddenly another person comes along and spends all you’ve saved on lotto tickets.

This is basically what just occurred: all those tiny frozen-veggies-rather-than-fresh choices – a few dollars from the Boys and Girls fund, laying off some officers – got wiped away because someone bought a lotto ticket to kill a killer.

It’s disheartening and heartbreaking.

]]>By: David Kaczynskihttps://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/an-extravagant-waste/455/#comment-821
Tue, 28 Jun 2011 22:19:53 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/?p=455#comment-821Ann, I believe that Basciano was involved in a number of mob “hits” – either planning them or carrying them out. He was brought to trial a second time after new evidence surfaced implicating him in additional murders.
]]>By: Annhttps://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/an-extravagant-waste/455/#comment-820
Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:37:37 +0000http://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski/?p=455#comment-820It is an extravagant waste.

I am not in favor of doing away with the death penalty- if someone killed my family member or loved one, I would expect appropriate restitution including death if applicable. The government asks us not to take the law into our own hands and in return they will handle it for us.

If the jury already sentenced the man, why is he being re-sentenced? Did family members of his victims protest? if not, then what could possibly be the justification?